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WHERE TO NOW? The National Construction Code amendments were first brought to the attention of the STA by the Serge Ferrari team – which then led to several discussions and research taking place within the STA membership as well as external associations – eventually leading to the lodgement of a formal submission with the Australian Building Codes Board. In this article, Laure Senequier from Serge Ferrari makes some suggestions regarding the industry’s response to the current situation.
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echnological advancement and research and development lead the way in textile production and allow buildings to be more sustainable, lightweight, efficient and architecturally pleasing by adding flexibility of shape and form. Architectural textiles are unique in delivering such a combination of opportunities and advantages. Textiles in architecture respond to the growing demands of our industry for faster and more economical builds, while also tackling the continually increasing running costs of a building. In addition to a textile’s properties, the way it’s used and installed will determinate its efficiency and broaden its technical benefits. For example, external blinds can be up to seven times more energy efficient than internal blinds, while maintaining good access to the view and bringing aesthetical values to a building. Yet these benefits are undermined by a general appreciation that materials of more solid forms are perhaps more durable and have better fire behaviour. Recent events like the Melbourne and London fires have prompted calls for swift
and drastic changes to fire regulations and should represent an opportunity for the architectural textile fabric industry to voice the advantages of sustainable, efficient and lightweight products. Architectural fabric products are combustible and fire retardant up to different levels, depending on the product, quality (of the raw materials used and consistency between one product and another etc), applications and needs. Until now, the way an architectural flexible fabric behaves facing fire, as well as the meaning and purpose of the full range of FR (fire retardancy) tests that we can provide to the industry, has widely been misunderstood and therefore architectural textiles are being penalised by blanket rules that call for them all to be non-combustible. Full-scale fire tests can be organised as well as brainstorming meetings in order for us to share information and knowledge and bring the right proofs and comparisons for us to be able to confirm that architectural flexible fabric products are a worldwide proven, efficient, sustainable and secure solution! It would also be interesting to look at fire spread, toxic substances and the dangerous effects a product produces in the event of a fire.
Cladding material that delaminates, produces toxic smoke and/or sends metal panels flying onto pedestrians is obviously dangerous… and questions should be raised whether such solutions are or is not compliant. The same questions should be asked of textiles that burn slowly, while producing toxic fumes and letting the temperature rise to extreme levels in containment. If the industry works together to establish what should or should not be a compliant solution by proving that if a textile does not spread flame, produces minimal smoke, opens up upon contact with a flame to let smoke out (thus reducing the temperature inside the building) and is self-extinguishing, this may be recognised as a coherent alternative to the current solutions available on the market and be compliant. It is the duty of the textile industry to educate government bodies regarding the solutions the industry can provide. For this it is important to ensure policy-makers understand the behaviour of textiles in architecture and organise specific testing and certification methods. Laure Senequier is the Asia-Pacific area manager at Serge Ferrari.
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10/11/17 4:29 PM